Road improvements sought at busy intersection

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Road improvements for Maricopa Casa Grande Highway, a discussion involving union negotiations between the firefighters and the city, a rundown on last month’s tire plant fire at Arizona Rubber Recycling Company and approval of several liquor licenses and/or permits were among some of the topics covered at Tuesday evening’s city council meeting.

Council heard from Bob Jackson, the former public works director, now mayor of Casa Grande, on improvements to Maricopa Casa Grande Highway, including the intersection with White and Parker Road.

Jackson, who labeled the intersection “the most dangerous intersection in town”, told the crowd that a signal is a definite need for the site to minimize the chances of accidents. “We have a traffic problem getting onto Casa Grande Highway from White and Parker,” Jackson said.

Council backed the idea (6-0 vote, Councilman Kelly Haddad was not in attendance) of installing a signal at the intersection, but told Jackson that plans for a grade separation project at the railroad crossing at White and Parker should stay on a priority list for now. Jackson noted that $2 million was budgeted to do the signal project. Funds not used for the signal cost will go towards road improvements on Maricopa Casa Grande Highway.

Meantime, saying a proposed grade separation could take a number of years, Jackson said city officials have been meeting on a regular basis with representatives from Union Pacific Railroad (UPR) to address improvements in the area of the crossing.

“We don’t have control of all the pieces there,” Jackson said, referring to UPR’s jurisdiction when it comes to the area involving the railroad. “A lot of the discussion there involves Union Pacific. Union Pacific is a stumbling block.”

Jackson noted that the grade separation’s total cost would be around $25 million, with at least four to five years needed to accomplish everything.

Councilman Joseph Estes said timing on road improvements has been a big issue.

“The length of time of discussions is the biggest frustration,” Estes said. Estes asked Jackson if it was wise for the city to designate a full-time person to deal with these problems. “Brent (Billingsley) does a big chunk of that already,” Jackson added. Billingsley is the city’s transportation director.

• Council heard from Greg Fretz regarding the possibility of the city starting negotiations with the Fire Fighter’s Association on a memorandum of understanding. Fretz consults with the City of Chandler.

Fretz, who said he is a big fan of collective bargaining, told the attendees that he was here to explain the process of meet and confer for wages, benefits and other terms of employment. He said that employees have the right to participate or not participate, but the memorandum of understanding applies to everyone.

Fretz said the preference in any negotiations is to reach agreement at the bargaining table and not go to mediation.

Councilman Will Dunn applauded the efforts of the firefighters (several were in attendance along with Chief William Kelleher), noting “I want to thank the firefighters for their patience. We’d like to get this thing moving. It is time to get it done,” Dunn noted.

Mayor Kelly Anderson added that Kelleher’s leadership in involving firefighters’ sentiments on station plans, uniforms and more has been important.

• Kelleher updated council on the tire plant fire that burned last month at the Arizona Rubber Recycling Co.

According to Kelleher, the facility had been cited for violations just prior to the fire. When firefighters arrived on the scene on Sept. 20, they discovered some three acres of high-piled scrap tires on fire.

Maricopa Fire Division Chief Mark Boys had given the new general manager of Arizona Rubber Recycling a 15-day extension to fix a number of safety violations, including tires being stacked too close to each other, a lack of adequate water for fire suppression, an overload of waste product stored at the site and improper fencing to secure the area. Boys told inmaricopa.com at the time that management at the facility was working with the city to mitigate the issues.

Maricopa had assistance from a number of fire departments at the time, including Gila River, Ak-Chin and Casa Grande. The Phoenix Fire Department also assisted, sending crews to cover the City of Maricopa while its firefighters were battling the blaze.

The fire burned nearly seven acres of tires and smoke impacted residents as far away as Scottsdale. A voluntary evacuation for Maricopa residents was made available by providing Red Cross personnel at the high school, but no one took advantage of it. A day after the fire, a smoke advisory was issued for the city.

Boys issued a cease and desist order to prevent the facility from reopening until it corrected the problems.

Two previous fires occurred at the facility in 2003 and 2005.

• Finally, several special event permits and/or liquor license recommendations for the Arizona State Liquor Board met with approval.

City council gave its blessing for special event liquor licenses for the Maricopa Rotary Club to serve alcohol at the Cotton Picking Barn Dance on Oct. 20; and to Pat Kieny with Native New Yorker to serve alcohol at the 4th Annual Founders Day Celebration on Oct. 13 at Pacana Park.

Also getting approval was a request from Jim Johnson to conduct a special event called the Fall Harvest Festival slated for Oct. 31, 6 to 9 p.m., at the First Baptist Church at 18705 N. John Wayne Parkway; and Torri Anderson to conduct a special event known as the Against Abuse Inc. Seeds of Change Gala on Feb. 23, 2008, 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., at the Global Water Center.

Finally, approval was given on a recommendation for Taco Del Mar for a liquor license update at the restaurant at 21101 N. John Wayne Parkway. The current owner had been operating on an interim permit until December of this year.

Council will next convene on Oct. 16 for a 6 p.m. work session, followed by the 7 p.m. public meeting.

Photo by Dave Thomas